I think that's what makes me the most upset about this series.
the S rank mages you talked about (who none of them we really seen lose (except this arc with mira about to lose it) and I do personally like this rivalry between Erza and Minvera)
but Natsu is beating guild leaders. Guild S class people but still considered A class. Grey is damn near considered same level he gets minimal love.
and then lucy comes in and is like the savior of every damn arc some how some way. like come on son. get your story together.
Weren't Gajeel and Juvia both S class in their old guild? Then they had Gajeel go undercover with raven tail or whatever and that had 0 payoff. I think he planned to do an arc on that then was like eff it i'll just have the ENTIRE guild be beat easily by Laxus.
And now that time travel has been introduced the whole story is messed up. Got future Grey walking around the same building as Present Grey, but that's never brought up by Natsu.
Lucy spends half the story just in the way, but the she's supposed to be a main figure in the guild? I don't understand the need to reach to make her important in every arc, like he doesn't have plenty of other characters.
Also what do the other guilds do when all this stuff goes on? He makes limited use of the world he's built. He made a story with plenty of potential and he just wastes it every week. It makes no sense.